Analysis - Resistance to austerity stirs in southern Europe

[dipsydoodle]

(Reuters) - Most of the people of southern Europe have stayed surprisingly stoical up to now in the face of some of the most painful budget cuts in living memory, but signs are stirring that patience may soon run out.

An unexpectedly broad general strike in Spain on Thursday and mounting opposition to Prime Minister Mario Monti in Italy are among indicators that resistance is growing in a region at the centre of concerns about a resurgence of the euro zone debt crisis.

Portugal remains very subdued for the moment and even Greece, scene of repeated violent street protests, has quietened recently. But there are signals that political leaders will soon be directly in the firing line across Europe, especially if more cuts are required to reduce sovereign debt.

The atmosphere seems a combination of two opposite tendencies - acceptance of the message that deep cuts are the only way to save their countries from economic catastrophe, and a mounting feeling that greater pain cannot be borne by populations suffering deprivation and misery.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/01/uk-europe-patience-idUKBRE83004V20120401

[Owlet]

1. Good article. But why would the Greeks

do this?

Greeks appear to be waiting to punish the thoroughly discredited political class in the election, with nearly a third planning to abstain or cast blank ballots, according to polls

There's been a lot of comparison between conditions now and the '30's, but the big difference in my mind is that today there really seem to be no competing ideologies as there were then. In the '30's the lines were pretty starkly drawn between Fascism and Communism. Today the choice seems to be between different flavors of capitalism - austere capitalism or printmoney capitalism. Or, in the case of this county, corporate-controlled Democrats or corporate-controlled Republicans.

So, to answer my own question, a blank ballot, while solving nothing, seems as good a way as any to express one's disgust with the system.